Dry ice bombs explode in LA airport two days in a row

Security is on high alert at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) after two dry ice bombs went off there on Sunday and on Monday and two more were found by police. An airport employee has been arrested in connection with the explosions.

The arrested man is a Servisair employee Dicarlo Bennett, 28,
according to an unnamed law enforcement official cited by AP.
Bennett allegedly took the dry ice from one of the planes.

The dry ice explosions on October 13 and October 14 raised
concern over the airport’s security measures. All four dry ice
bombs were found in areas only accessible by employees. The three
bombs discovered on Monday were near a plane at LAX’s Tom Bradley
International Terminal, which has just had a $1.9 billion
renovation.

“The focus is definitely in the restricted area, not in the
areas where passengers have access,” Sgt. Karla Ortiz, LAPD,
said to the Los Angeles Times. “We want to make sure that that
get’s tightened up.”

No one was injured during the explosions. The Los Angeles Police
Department and the FBI are currently investigating the situation,
although at this point they do not suspect a connection to
terrorism.

“We have to finish our investigations to find out what the
cause was,” Ortiz told NBC News. “We always do our
best to prevent such incidents but we will be keeping our eyes
peeled following these similar events.”

Monday night’s explosion occurred at
8:30 pm local time (11:30 pm ET).
No flights were affected, and the situation was resolved by
9:45 pm.

Sunday’s incident, meanwhile, shut down activity in Terminal 2
while the LAPD bomb squad reacted. A soda bottle containing dry
ice had burst in an employee restroom around 7
pm local time (10 pm. ET). No injuries
were reported, though some flights were delayed.